Pumpkin12_01.JPG Ray Barenchi, of Santa Rosa, waits in his truck before weighing his pumpkin at the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on Monday, October 11, 2004. Barenchi's pumpkin was measured at 1,027 pounds.
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Pumpkin12_01.JPG Ray Barenchi, of Santa Rosa, waits in his truck before weighing his pumpkin at the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on Monday, October 11, 2004. ... more

Photo: JAKUB MOSUR

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Pumpkin12_03.JPG Olivia Zumino, 7, of Los Altos Hills, stands next to her pumpkin named Bubbles after winning the most beautiful contest during the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on Monday, October 11, 2004. Bubbles weighed in at 487 pounds.
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Pumpkin12_03.JPG Olivia Zumino, 7, of Los Altos Hills, stands next to her pumpkin named Bubbles after winning the most beautiful contest during the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in ... more

Photo: JAKUB MOSUR

Image 3 of 4

Pumpkin12_04.JPG The two top winning pumpkins get raised above the crowd at the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on Monday, October 11, 2004. The pumpkin on the left belongs to Joel Holland who got 1st prize at 1,229 pounds and the one on the right was Jack Larue's weighing in at 1,160 pounds.
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Pumpkin12_04.JPG The two top winning pumpkins get raised above the crowd at the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on Monday, October 11, 2004. The pumpkin on the left ... more

The moment had come for the monstrous orange growth that amateur horticulturalist Joel Holland insisted was a pumpkin to be lifted onto the scale.

As the forklift lowered the giant, the land's best pumpkin growers held their breath, especially Washington state's Jack LaRue, whose humongous orange- hued mutant had just topped out at 1,160 pounds, the heaviest of the day, so far.

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"This pumpkin is gonna go on display," he shouted, patting the monster, his fingers passing over brown barnacle-like blotches, as a crowd of photographers snapped pictures. "And we may have it carved up after that."

Holland's pumpkin, known as an Atlantic Giant, won him $6,145 -- or $5 per pound.

It was the fattest known squash ever to be hauled into San Mateo County. Alas, it would be a mere appetizer next to the world record holder unveiled Oct. 2 by Alan Eaton in Ontario, Canada. That one weighed 1,446 pounds, 61 pounds more than the previous world record.

But the contest in Half Moon Bay, which calls itself the "pumpkin capital of the world," attracts the best growers in the country and is considered among the most prestigious.

There were, however, no fun and games at Monday's weigh-off, where competitors are tense, secretive and jealously protective of the big veggies they've been nurturing since spring.

"It's sort of like sending your child off to college," said Eda Muller, whose 612-pound beauty was the biggest locally grown pumpkin in the contest. "You put all this time and effort into it and then you see the result."

Muller, who runs Farmer John's Pumpkin Farm in Half Moon Bay with her husband, Farmer John, was one of many growers pacing around before the weigh- off, nervously checking out the competition.

Even last year's champ, Steve Daletas of Pleasant Hill, Ore., wandered the grounds, probing for weaknesses.

"That one feels a little hollow," he said dismissively under his breath, gesturing toward a huge pumpkin across the way.

But Daletas also had reservations about the strange-looking, orange-green blob he dragged to the competition.

"It's smaller than last year's pumpkin, and it's an odd shape," he said apologetically. "But I don't think too many people are here for the beauty contest."

Some, however, were there for the beauty contest, a division won by a strikingly orange 487-pound bombshell, affectionately named "Bubbles."

"This was a pretty pumpkin from day one," explained Vince Zunino of Los Altos Hills, as his 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, accepted some candy along with the $500 prize.

Growing giant pumpkins has, in fact, become a kind of art form. The techniques have improved dramatically since the first championship in 1974, won by a scrawny -- by today's standards -- 132- pounder.

Most of the 80 competitors in this year's Half Moon Bay contest will tell you that seeds, soil and climate are the three most important factors in growing big pumpkins.

Oregon and Washington appear to be the best locations. Competitors from those two states have won 12 of the past 13 championships. This year's winner, Holland, is a veteran big pumpkin grower, having won the Half Moon Bay competition in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

Most of the competitors have actually known one another for years. Although growers share some information, the competition has recently become so fierce that champion pumpkin seeds have been known to sell for $800 apiece.

Competitors search desperately for an edge and regularly monitor each other's patches, searching for new soil concoctions or secret techniques.

"Steve Daletas has an advantage," said Brett Hester, a Canby, Ore., vegetation pathologist who treats pumpkin growing as a sport. "He's a pilot, so he flies over people's patches."

The competition can even be tense within families or among lovers.

"There's a road that separates our patches," said Rock Rivard, referring to his girlfriend, Shellie Cramer. "It's not just a little rivalry."

Cramer and Rivard, who live in Rochester, Wash., dubbed their pumpkins "beauty and the beast," because, he said, "her pumpkin is pretty and my pumpkin is butt ugly."

Rivard had to struggle to keep his composure when he learned that Cramer's pumpkin had trounced his, 959 to 931 pounds.

"Pumpkins are like people," he said, as he fired up his John Deere, with his wife, dog and pumpkins loaded up in the flatbed trailer. "They're all shapes and sizes and you never know who is best until someone picks you."